full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Peter Haas: When bad engineering makes a natural disaster even worse

Unscramble the Blue Letters


I learned about the Haiti earthquake by Skype. My wife sent me a message, "Whoa, eqtuakahre," and then disappeared for 25 minutes. It was 25 minutes of absolute terror that thousands of people across the U.S. felt. I was afraid of a tsunami; what I didn't raeilze was there was a greater terror in Haiti, and that was building clsaople. We've all seen the photos of the collapsed buildings in Haiti. These are sthos my wife took a couple days after the quake, while I was making my way through the D.R. into the country. This is the national palace — the equivalent of the White House. This is the largest supermarket in the crabeaibn at peak shopping time. This is a nurses' coelgle — there are 300 nurses studying. The general hospital right next door emerged larlegy unscathed. This is the Ministry of econicmos and Finance.

Open Cloze


I learned about the Haiti earthquake by Skype. My wife sent me a message, "Whoa, __________," and then disappeared for 25 minutes. It was 25 minutes of absolute terror that thousands of people across the U.S. felt. I was afraid of a tsunami; what I didn't _______ was there was a greater terror in Haiti, and that was building ________. We've all seen the photos of the collapsed buildings in Haiti. These are _____ my wife took a couple days after the quake, while I was making my way through the D.R. into the country. This is the national palace — the equivalent of the White House. This is the largest supermarket in the _________ at peak shopping time. This is a nurses' _______ — there are 300 nurses studying. The general hospital right next door emerged _______ unscathed. This is the Ministry of _________ and Finance.

Solution


  1. college
  2. largely
  3. caribbean
  4. collapse
  5. economics
  6. shots
  7. realize
  8. earthquake

Original Text


I learned about the Haiti earthquake by Skype. My wife sent me a message, "Whoa, earthquake," and then disappeared for 25 minutes. It was 25 minutes of absolute terror that thousands of people across the U.S. felt. I was afraid of a tsunami; what I didn't realize was there was a greater terror in Haiti, and that was building collapse. We've all seen the photos of the collapsed buildings in Haiti. These are shots my wife took a couple days after the quake, while I was making my way through the D.R. into the country. This is the national palace — the equivalent of the White House. This is the largest supermarket in the Caribbean at peak shopping time. This is a nurses' college — there are 300 nurses studying. The general hospital right next door emerged largely unscathed. This is the Ministry of Economics and Finance.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
confined masonry 4


Important Words


  1. absolute
  2. afraid
  3. building
  4. buildings
  5. caribbean
  6. collapse
  7. collapsed
  8. college
  9. country
  10. couple
  11. days
  12. disappeared
  13. door
  14. earthquake
  15. economics
  16. emerged
  17. equivalent
  18. felt
  19. finance
  20. general
  21. greater
  22. haiti
  23. hospital
  24. house
  25. largely
  26. largest
  27. learned
  28. making
  29. message
  30. ministry
  31. minutes
  32. national
  33. nurses
  34. palace
  35. peak
  36. people
  37. photos
  38. quake
  39. realize
  40. shopping
  41. shots
  42. skype
  43. studying
  44. supermarket
  45. terror
  46. thousands
  47. time
  48. unscathed
  49. white
  50. wife